


Song of unity

by Lord_of_Spirits_and_Bazongas



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-13 02:12:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7958305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_of_Spirits_and_Bazongas/pseuds/Lord_of_Spirits_and_Bazongas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wanting to take some time off from training, Allura introduces the paladins to a form of bonding that is common between the two civilizations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Song of unity

The castle of lions was such a monumental structure that not even the residents who used, or who still lived there knew every nook and cranny about it. Back in the days of old when the Altean Empire was in its prime, the castle had been expanded numerous times. The last few times had been to improve its military capabilities, but before the Galra empire had become a threat, there had been renovations and expansions for other, more civilized purposes. One room which Allura had practically forgotten, up until she had seen Pidge watching some sort of videos on her computer, was one dedicated for socializing over music, drinking, and snacks. To Allura’s pleasant surprise, it seemed like such activities were common among humans as well.   
  
“Are you absolutely sure about this, princess?” Coran asked; his voice telling Allura that he was clearly having doubts. While bonding between the paladins and the ones in control of the castle was indeed crucial, Coran couldn’t help but to feel that spending their precious time on something like this was a bit of a waste.   
  
“Positive,” Allura was quick to reply. Cleaning up some of the dust that had gathered on the automatic door, Allura let out a soft sigh as she turned to look up at her doubtful advisor. “I’m sure that you can also remember the time before the war. I know that those simpler times must feel like a distant memory at this point, but…” Allura took a moment to stay quiet. The dust had been able to cover the plate next to the room, yet the text underneath it was still there. Singing cabinet. A very fitting name for a room with basically a single purpose. “Maybe it is selfish of me, but I wish to keep this tradition alive. We need to be a single unit if we’re to defeat Zarkon, and mutual events such as this should bring us all closer together, wouldn’t you agree?”   
  
Coran couldn’t really disagree with the princess. As most of the time, she was right. While socializing during such times of crisis might have seemed like the complete opposite of what they should be doing, that wasn’t the case. Combat skills could only go so far, but the trust and bond they all needed to have for and with each other was something that couldn’t be brought to life by fighting alone.   
  
“You’re absolutely right. Cleaning this up will take me a few days, though. I hope that’s okay?”   
  
Allura smiled back at Coran; her hand resting on his shoulder for a short moment. “Take your time. In the meanwhile, I’ll go through our database to look for some songs that fit everyone’s taste and personality.”   
  
“You do that, princess. I’ll let you know when this place is cleaned up and ready to be used once more.” Coran announced.   
  
*   
  
“I don’t know about you guys, but I seriously love surprises.” Hunk said excitedly; his hands resting on Shiro’s and Lance’s shoulders; bringing them down to his level a bit.   
  
“You do know that when you know something is going to happen, it’s not really a surprise anymore?” Lance grunted.   
  
“Well technically this is still a surprise in a sense,” Pidge was quick to intervene. “I mean, we know that princess Allura has something special waiting for us, but we don’t know  _ what  _ exactly, so technically, it’s still a surprise, if you ask me.” Pidge pointed out.   
  
“Pidge has a good point, as always.” Hunk nodded back Pidge, who flashed an approving smile in return. “What do you guys think it will be?”   
  
“Given that it’s Allura we’re dealing with, it could be just about anything.” Keith said while trying to loosen up Hunk’s hold on him.   
  
Shiro turned to look up other over his broad shoulders. “Well, whatever it is, I’m sure it will be something pretty interesting.”   
  
“How can you be so sure?” Lance asked, taking a few steps closer to get right next to Shiro, after managing to escape Hunk’s hold by some miracle. “I mean have you guys already forgotten that exercise she made us go through two days ago? Morning jogging...that’s just inhumane!”   
  
“Well to be fair, she’s not human…” Pidge pointed out with a smug grin on her face.   
  
“Haha, very funny,” Lance laughed dryly before continuing: “But seriously, that’s just...wrong.”   
  
“Galaxy Garrison must have been easy on you if they didn’t have that morning routine from the get go,” Shiro said with a soft, friendly laugh. “Lance, she just wants us to be ready for the real battle that awaits us. Being physically fit and ready to fight at any given time is just one of the many requirements that a paladin must fulfill.”   
  
“Great. Now you’re even sounding like her…” Lance mumbled under his breath.   
  
Navigating through the castle had been hard at first, but now pretty much all of them knew where everything was. Even at those times when one got lost, they could always ask a computer for help, or if they wanted more human contact, Pidge happened to have a 3D map on her computer with GPS tracking. It was a big castle, after all, and after more than one occasion of a nightly trip to bathroom going horribly wrong, it was only reasonable for some form of safety measure to be established.   
  
“Ah, you finally made it.” Allura’s ever warm voice welcomed the paladins. Normally, pretty much everything about the castle was grand in both scale and size, but the room Allura was proudly standing next to certainly wasn’t anything out of ordinary. There was even some confetti and balloons wrapped around it.   
  
“We wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Shiro replied. Turning to look at the others over his shoulder once more, he gestured for everyone to nod by tugging his head very slightly. What followed was everyone agreeing in one shape or form, with Hunk’s voice clearly being the loudest.   
  
Allura couldn’t help herself not to giggle upon such an honest sign of passion. While the current paladins were still young and inexperienced, they were most certainly a team. What they lacked in experience, they made up for in attitude. “Good, because this bonding exercise I have in my mind will be of utmost importance. It will truly put both your individual abilities  and teamwork to the test. We’re going to discover all of your hidden secrets today. When we leave this room, we will all know who the ones standing next to us  _ truly _ are.” Allura said in a dramatic fashion. While her speech was scary enough to make even Shiro gulp, it was quite clear that whatever Allura had in her mind wasn’t as dramatic as she made it out to be; the balloons of each lion’s color were more than enough to indicate that.   
  
“Would you mind telling us what’s it exactly that you have in your mind?” Keith asked.   
  
“Please, don’t keep us waiting! It’s agonizing!” Hunk added.   
  
“I suppose I shouldn’t keep all of you waiting for any longer then,” Allura said, with a bright smile on her face, as she gestured for everyone to step in. The door opened on its own, as Shiro was the first to step in close enough for the laser beam to register that someone was entering the room.   
  
Everyone let out a gasp. Even Allura hadn’t seen just how good the work Coran had managed to do in just a few days was. The room had undoubtedly been left to gather dust and to store equipment, yet there was no sign of that anymore. The walls were decorated with posters presenting both Altean and human culture. It wasn’t that hard to get the latter, on this day and age, as merchants sold just about anything if one just had money to pay for them.   
  
Just what purpose the room served remained a mystery, up until everyone noticed a pair of microphones resting on a table positioned next to a corner. Accompanied by a giant sized television and speaker set surrounding the entire room, it didn’t take very long for everyone to figure out what Allura had in mind.   
  
“Oh, wow. It certainly has been quite some time since I’ve been able to sing.” Shiro said; his voice filled with wonder as if he was in a dream. Grabbing a hold of one of the microphones, he tested it out by tapping it against his palm.   
  
“You’re not supposed to do that,” Pidge corrected by yanking Shiro’s hand down from his sleeve. “That can damage it. You should try it out by saying something like one, two, three,” She instructed.   
  
“Oh? I didn’t know that, thank you,” Shiro coughed a few times to clear his throat, before doing what Pidge had taught her to do. “One...two...three.” Despite the fact that Shiro was used to hearing his own voice from various sources, hearing his own voice so loud and clear still managed to catch even him by surprise. “Oh, wow. That’s what I sound like?”   
  
“Now you know the pain we have to go through,” Lance snorted. He, Hunk, Allura and Keith had all sat down in the meanwhile while waiting for Shiro and Pidge to test out the microphones. Allura knew that Coran had done that before hand, but she didn’t want to ruin the cute moment by pointing that out.   
  
“Coran will be bringing us something to eat and drink soon, but how about we dry our throats before that?” Allura asked, as she looked around the room.   
  
“I must ask. Since you have posters of human culture, do you happen to have songs that we know as well?” Shiro asked after turning to face Allura and the rest. “I’m certainly not against trying to sing Altean songs, but I’m sure you’ll understand that we...well, we’d like to at least start out with something we actually know how to sing.” Shiro pointed out. The rest of the paladins all seemed to agree, as they all nodded their heads in unison.   
  
“Oh, of course,” Allura clapped her hands together to get everyone’s attention. “I did extensive research to figure out what sort of music all of you enjoy.” Allura looked around the room, her wandering gaze first stopping at the paladin to her right: Hunk.   
  
“I hope that I’m right with my predicament, but I predicted that you enjoy songs that have a lot of singing and meaningful lyrics. You enjoy music in all of its forms, and treat every genre respectfully, am I correct?” Allura asked, tilting her head ever so slightly.   
  
Hunk let out a hearty chuckle in response. It seemed like Allura hit the nail on the head with her guess. “Oh wow, you’re truly something, princess. As long as I just get to sing with someone, I’m happy.”   
  
“Ah, excellent. One point for me,” Allura let out a faint and short lived giggle before moving on to a paladin sitting next to Hunk, at the end of their round table; Lance.   
  
“Lance, your taste in music is all about style and coolness. You enjoy music that is popular, even if its genre isn’t something other people would think to be to your liking.”   
  
Lance tried to protest by shaking his hands wildly, but it seemed like everyone else already knew of Lance’s taste in music. “Ugh, so what? Pop music is nice. There’s nothing embarrassing about liking it.” Lance huffed. To his surprise, no one was judging or laughing at him, although Pidge and Keith were amused by the fact that Lance had to so quickly defend his taste to a group that was completely accepting.   
  
“Well...um...yeah,” Lance mumbled. “So how about you then, Keith, huh?” Lance pointed at the opposite end of the table.   
  
“Ah, Keith has a surprisingly refined taste in music according to my calculations. While he also enjoys music that is filled with guitar riffs and what you humans have dubbed ‘heavy metal’ despite the fact that it’s an ore, but never mind that,” Allura waved her own lingering thoughts off before continuing: “Did I predict that correctly?”   
  
Keith nodded back at Allura. “It seems like you’ve done your research.”   
  
“Two more to go then,” Allura licked her lips as she turned her attention to the youngest, and smallest paladin of the group; Pidge. “You were the hardest one to pin point, Pidge. Mostly because I think you don’t have a set taste in music just yet,” Allura pondered out loud. “I can tell that you’re still exploring when it comes to your taste in music, but from what I could gather, you enjoy a music that is...how should I put it... slower and softer? Something that you can listen to in the background without it distracting you, yes?” Allura guessed.   
  
“Yeah, that’s true,” Pidge replied back. A lot of times she was seen on her laptop wearing ear buds. While it was a known fact that Pidge listened to echoes and other voices coming from spaces, it only made sense that she also listened to music in the background while doing something else.   
  
“And then last, but definitely not the least, we have our trustworthy leader of the paladins, Shiro.” Allura tapped her chin a few times before continuing: “You were the easiest one to figure out by far.” Allura said, with a confident smile rising on her face.   
  
“Oh, how come?” Shiro asked.   
  
“You had a CD in your locker. It took me and Coran quite a bit of time to find a device that could play such an ancient form of audio, but after we managed to get one into our hands, it was quite easy to crack your case.” Allura snickered.   
  
“Oh right, I had almost forgotten about that,” Shiro lied. During his time as an exploration pilot, that CD had been a valuable companion, and also a reminder of Earth. “It’s safe though, right?”   
  
“Oh, but of course. I know how much you value it. I only borrowed it so I could make copies of those songs for our database. The CD is back in your locker, safe and sound.” Allura bowed her head down as a form of apology. “Anyhow, now that we’re all here and I’ve seemingly successfully managed to pin point everyone’s specific tastes, how about we get started then? Who wants to go first?” Allura clapped her hands together while looking around the room. Hunk had both of his hands high up in the air as if he wanted a teacher to let him answer a question. Allura wasn’t asking a question, but she was asking for a volunteer, so that part fit the bill, at least.   
  
“Hunk, I assume you want to start this off, then,” Allura said with a soft giggle. “But let’s not leave Hunk do all the work by himself. Would someone care to join him, hmm?” Allura looked around the room in hopes of spotting someone who would join him.   
  
“I wouldn’t mind.” Shiro said as he turned to face Hunk.   
  
“Hah, awesome!” Hunk cheered as he pushed his way past the table and then past Lance, who was busy browsing a printed list of songs.   
  
“Here you go.” Pidge passed her microphone to Hunk as they swapped places. Now Hunk was standing in front of the table with Shiro. The two tall men were standing almost side by side. Pidge found her way to sit next to Allura, who greeted her with a warm and gentle smile.    
  
“It’s so nice that all of you decided to come.” Allura said, nodding to everyone around her, before focusing her attention to the girl sitting right beside her.   
  
“Is this actually voluntary, or is this part of an actual training program for paladins?” Pidge asked as she adjusted her glasses.   
  
“Well, this isn’t really mandatory in a sense, but with so many planets under Zarkon’s command, we can’t utilize all of the former training programs and facilities either, I’m afraid.” Allura let out a deep sigh.   
  
Pidge hesitated for a moment, but soon Allura felt a hand resting on her shoulder. “I...I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories like that. I’m sure you’re doing the best you can with what you have.” Pidge said, hoping that her words would cheer up the princess.   
  
It seemed like that was the exact case, as Pidge soon felt herself wrapped up in a hug. The bond between the paladins was important, and needed to be strong to command the lions; yet the bond between the pilot of the castle and the paladins was just as important.   
  
“Thank you, Pidge. At times, I feel bad for...not really having much, or any experience in this. I can only replicate the methods I know have been used in the past, or try to come up with something new on my own. I have to be strong, for all of your sake, and for the sake of the entire world…”   
  
“Hey now, you’re doing great work princess,” Pidge smirked as she patted Allura on the back a few times when their hug loosened up. “But you have to remember that you’re part of the team too. Don’t carry the responsibility of this all by yourself. And besides; this evening is meant to be a relaxing one is it not? For one night, let’s forget Zarkon, and focus on what’s truly important,” Pidge opened up her arms to point at everyone in the room. “Us.”   
  
Allura felt her lips curl up into a smile before she let out a heartfelt laugh. With all of the stress, it was as if Allura herself had forgotten that their gathering was meant to be a casual event of fun, rather than moping around over Zarkon and the rest of the Galra empire looming over them, and the rest of the world. “I’m sorry. You’re absolutely right, Pidge. I suppose all of this stress and worry is clouding me, and making it hard to see what I should truly value, and focus on.”   
  
“Well, it’s good to realize that sooner than later.” Pidge said with a genuine smile on her face.   
  
“Oh, indeed.” Allura said with a quiet, yet heartfelt chuckle.   
  
While Pidge and Allura were busy bonding with each other, Hunk and Shiro were having a tough time deciding which song to go with. Hunk was more than willing to sing just about anything. It didn’t matter if he knew the lyrics or not. He was simply happy to sing to his heart’s content. Shiro, on the other hand, found a lot of songs close to him; yet choosing just one was proving to be a surprisingly difficult task. Shiro knew that he had time to most likely go through all of the songs he recognized from the last and more, yet it was still an important choice to set the mood for the rest of the evening.   
  
“What’s taking you two so long?” Lance grunted as he put down the booklet. “Or I suppose I should ask, what’s taking  _ you _ so long?” Lance squinted his eyes as he looked at Shiro.   
  
“I’m sorry, it’s just...overwhelming to see such a massive list of choices,” Shiro laughed while rubbing the back of his head. “It’s like going to an ice cream vendor and then there are hundred choices to choose from. I’m simply overwhelmed, that’s all.”   
  
Lance couldn’t really argue with Shiro. While Lance himself was more than eager to showcase his singing skills to everyone in the room, and especially Keith, he still let others do the ice breaking for him so to speak. “Well fine, but just pick something, okay? We do have a roomful of people here eager to sing, after all.”   
  
“Well, why aren’t you up there now, then?” Keith grinned from the opposite end of the table.   
  
“Huh?” Lance raised an eyebrow. Their typical cockfighting was more or less a daily show at this point. For the longest of time, everyone had been quick to intervene, and stop such clashes, but the battle of two egos was like an eternal clash; it simply couldn’t be stopped, so no one bothered to come in between them anymore. Now what separated the two hot headed teens was but one round table.   
  
“If you two must try to best one another, I suggest you do it outside.” Shiro sighed. Even though he was the leader of the paladins, even he grew tired of the two clashing more or less on a daily basis.   
  
“Actually, I think we can come up with much healthier ways to settle any differences.” Allura commented with her index finger pointing up at the microphones Hunk and Shiro were holding. “You two will have a ‘sing off,’ and we, the jury, will decide who’s the better one. How does that sound?”   
  
If there was one thing both Lance and Keith were eager about, it was competition of any form. With such a big audience to witness their brawling this time, it was a suggestion neither of them could rule out.   
  
“Oh, it’s on.” Lance grinned. His mind was already busy picking up songs that’d fit his style the best. After all, he had to bring his A-game to the table to properly swoon the audience; even if that usually happened without him even trying. At least that’s how it went inside of his head; reality was another thing entirely.   
  
“I suppose I’ll have to make your defeat a public showing, then.” Keith said with a sly smirk on his face.   
  
“Now, now, save it for later.” Shiro calmed the two down. “I think I finally figured out a song to start with. I’ve heard that back on Earth, this song about Pi ña colada was quite popular, so let’s maybe start with it. Is that fine by you Hunk?”   
  
“Do you even have to ask?” Hunk gave Shiro a fistbump before turning to face the giant sized TV screen. Both of them took a deep breath, preparing themselves. The music started, and soon the lyrics jumped onto the screen:    
  
“I was tired of my lady, we'd been together too long…” Both Hunk and Shiro sang. At first, they weren’t in sync, but it didn’t take long for them to get the hang of it.  
  
“...What horrible lyrics.” Allura shook her head.  
  
Even if the lyrics weren’t to everyone’s liking, the rather calm and soothing pace of the song certainly was. Everyone was jamming along. Some of the paladins were singing the chorus with Hunk and Shiro while Allura and Pidge preferred to stay mostly quiet; only joining in by tapping the table to the rhythm of the song.   
  
*   
  
Hunk and Shiro were already resting by the time Coran had found his way into the karaoke room. The beverages and snacks on his plate were welcomed with open arms.   
  
“I see that the bonding experience is working marvelously,” Coran twirled his mustaches as he turned his attention to Allura. “Sorry for having my doubts about that.”   
  
“It’s quite all right, Coran,” Allure reassured her advisor, before taking a sip of her drink. “Are you planning to join us, or are you busy keeping the castle's defenses up and running?”   
  
“Unfortunately someone has to do it. Of course, I trust the automatic system to do the hard work, but I can’t rest easy unless there’s someone monitoring it all. I’ll try to come and see you all again later on, but for now I must get going. Take care everyone.” Coran waved to everyone before taking his leave.   
  
“I’m a bit curious,” Pidge tugged Allura by her sleeve to get her attention. “Was this sort of bonding common among Alteans? I don’t mean to pry or anything. I’m simply curious.”   
  
Allura felt a genuine warmth spreading around her heart. It was still very hard for her to come to terms with the fact that currently, there were only two known Alteans who survived Zarkon’s attack. Their culture was rich, but now barely anyone knew about it. Yet even during such dark times, the hope for a better tomorrow was still there. Other beings still cared for them, which meant that their culture could flourish, even if they had to start from scratch.   
  
“Ah, it’s absolutely fine. Actually, I’m rather interested in talking about my people. It’s one thing that I can talk about these days that seems to take almost everyone by surprise. And you seem to be genuinely interested in hearing about it, too.” Allura said with a faint giggle.   
  
Pidge could feel her cheek catching a faint coloring of red. It was a known fact that Pidge enjoyed learning new things; and knowledge about Alteans was one of the rarest forms you could get. The databases were still filled with information about them, yet that could easily be faked or modified to suit a specific purpose. Hearing it straight from an actual person, let alone royalty to boot, was an opportunity she simply couldn’t pass up.   
  
“Heh. Um...thanks.” Pidge replied after staying quiet for a moment; unable to come up with anything more sauve to say.   
  
“Are you ready to get your ass handed to you?” Lance puffed cockily.   
  
“Oh, I think you’re the one who’s going to be flat on your behind after all is said and done.” Keith smirked back at him.    
  
The two stared at each other, before grabbing a hold of their microphones. To keep the competition fair, both of them got to pick three songs from the list. Just to spice things up, the last song was a duet. It had taken a lot of convincing to get them to test their skills in such fashion, but somehow Allura had managed to say all the right words to make them play along. What followed was like watching two alpha males trying to best each other in every possible instance. At the end of the day, it was uncertain which one of them was triumphant, and eventually even Lance accepted the draw, be it a bit bitterly.   
  
*   
  
The night was already starting to settle in by the time Pidge and Allura had finished their duet. To contrast the rock and roll others seemed to prefer, they had decided to go with slower and more calm songs to balance things out. It was only fitting to end the night in such fashion. As the group was ready to disband and hit the hay, Allura made one more announcement.   
  
“Paladins...I...I’d like to ask you for one last request for this night,” Allura said in a very formal fashion. Everyone else looked at each other and nodded back at her. They were all pretty tired at this point, but at the same time, they respected Allura immensely. Whatever she had in her mind, they’d oblige. “You might have noticed that we’ve only sung songs from Earth today. I was hoping that perhaps...we could end this evening with a song that means a lot to me. It’s...an Altean song.” Allura gently rubbed her hands together.   
  
“I think that is an excellent idea, princess,” Corran popped up behind the crew of paladins. “I’m sure that everyone here is on board with that idea, am I right?” Corran didn’t even have to look around to know that the rest were more than willing to play, or in this case, sing along.   
  
“Good, I’m happy to hear that.” Allura gestured everyone to shuffle in closer to her. They still had only two microphones after all, so in order for everyone’s voices to be heard, they had to tightly clump together.   
  
“What’s the song about? I assume the lyrics are in Altean so we probably don’t understand them.” Pidge asked while doing her best to get herself some space.   
  
“It’s about unity.” Allura said proudly. Gazing at everyone around her, she felt that word echo within her head a few times. Unity. It had been the force that kept them alive for so long, and now the universe needed that same unity if they wanted to survive. It was up for all of them to stand against the darkness and be one. “This song was originally created to celebrate the unity of my people but now I suppose it will have a different sort of meaning.”    
  
Allura felt her eyes watering up the more she waited. These brave souls were willing to fight, taking on the mantle even at such a young age. Whatever awaited them would most certainly be dangerous to all of them, yet despite the odds being against them, they were smiling and cheering. Hope was something that Allura had almost lost herself all those years ago, but now she believed in it more than ever. The Alteans were gone, but they wouldn’t be forgotten. They made sure of that.   


**Author's Note:**

> You can also find me at tumblr http://lordofspiritsandbazongas.tumblr.com/ If you have ideas, suggestions, feedback, comment, anything like that, feel free to contact me.


End file.
